Citigroup has joined other global banks such as Barclays and Bank of America that are also betting big on blockchain technologyAnirban Sen | ET Bureau | September 01, 2015, 08:52 IST

Bitcoins with a unique identification number and companies like Coinbase and Blockchain can hold the currency for the user.Citigroup is looking to tap into the potential of blockchain, the underlying technology that powers virtual currencies such as bitcoin, and is also experimenting with the idea of its own fiat-backed digital currency , a top executive of the United States headquartered banking and financial services company said.

The company has joined other global banks such as Barclays and Bank of America that are also betting big on blockchain technology, which is widely being seen as the biggest technology disruption in the world of traditional financial services. Fiat money is currency that derives its value from government regulations.

“On the blockchain, there are two parts that interest us. One is, today we are one of the largest movers of money - up to $1 trillion or more on a daily basis - because we're the only bank that actually operates in 100 countries. So, there is obviously an opportunity around our own general ledgers,“ said Aditya Menon, managing director of global digital strategy at Citigroup.

Menon further said: “We like the idea of a cryptocurrency that doesn't have volatility. We are experimenting with the idea of a fiat-backed digital currency - backed by a pound or a dollar or euro as the case may be. So, there is some interest there.“

The company's bet on blockchain comes at a time when the traditional banking and financial services industry is facing rapid disruption from the rise of new-age payments banks, mobile wallets and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

“For us it's not so much about bitcoin because bitcoin is something that has very volatile value, questionable in terms of an entry in and entry out from a regulatory perspective. But if you think about the distributed ledger - that is extremely valuable,“ said Menon, who also heads application programme interface development at Citigroup.

Traditional banks like Citi and JP Morgan are scrambling to play catch-up with new-age fintech companies that are starting to leverage blockchain technology .

According to a July report from the International Business Times, Citigroup has built its own digital currency based on bitcoin and the blockchain called CitiCoin.

Experts see blockchain technology as hugely disruptive since it completely overhauls the traditional methods of transacting and maintaining online records, and allows banks and people to directly exchange money without having to rely on the additional, more expensive layers of middlemen.

“Blockchain gives you the ability to not only update a distributed ledger but settle it, which otherwise is a laborious process especially if you're doing it across multiple countries and times zones, etc. So there is one opportunity there,“ said Menon.

He said trade finance is another area, citing the example of open-account trading.“There is a last-mile hostage situation where money , documents need to change hands. So, if you use a distributed ledger to actually record ownership of title of the goods and then that changes hands based on the payments - that's a great example of how you can use blockchain technology to facilitate a trade transaction, which otherwise has been done in a very manual-intense way ,“ he said.

At the company's research and development labs in Dublin, a team of researchers and executives are currently experimenting with the use of blockchain in traditional financial services.

A number of regulators have also started looking at blockchain as a viable alternate way to run real-time payments and settlements, said Menon.